EuroMillions lottery jackpot of $102 million goes unclaimed

In the United Kingdom, a mystery lottery player has lost out on a £64 million (US$102.5 million) fortune after the deadline to claim the prize expired and the money was handed to charity.

The unlucky individual, who bought the winning EuroMillions ticket in Hertfordshire on June 8th, had until 11pm yesterday to collect the massive windfall.

But despite a National Lottery publicity campaign, the would-be multi-millionaire missed the 180-day deadline — making the £63,837,543.60 prize the biggest unclaimed lottery win in history and the biggest ever windfall for the National Lottery Good Causes fund.

A National Lottery spokeswoman said, "Unfortunately, I can confirm that the ticket holder did not come forward within the deadline to claim their prize and has now sadly missed out on this staggering amount of money.

"The vast majority of prizes are claimed within the 180 days but to avoid this unfortunate situation happening again, we would urge all National Lottery players to check their tickets on a regular basis."

The distribution of the money will be the responsibility of 13 lottery distribution bodies across the country.

Health, Education, Environment, and charitable causes will receive the lion's share of the winnings, at 40 percent. Sports, The Arts, and Heritage will each receive 20 percent.

Michael Thompson, a spokesman for The National Lottery Good Causes, said, "Countless good causes will benefit from this unclaimed prize. National Lottery players should be proud that they are helping so many good causes in their own area.

"In theory, the £64 million unclaimed prize would fund over 6,000 minibuses to help kids with disabilities. The £64 million would also fund the improvement of approximately 7,800 play areas for children across the UK and build over 1,000 village halls/community centres across the UK."

National Lottery officials launched a desperate search for the holder, raising awareness through adverts and posters — with even a town crier proclaiming the win from a Lamborghini.

All lottery players were urged to check their tickets and search some of the more unusual places where "lost" tickets have been found in the past, such as in bin bags, wedged down the back of sofas and stashed in car sun visors.

The lottery spokeswoman added, "We tried very hard to find the ticket-holder, with lots of awareness-raising activity over the past 180 days, and it's a real shame that they have missed out, but there is still one winner — the nation."

In 2001 Martyn Tott, a purchasing manager from Watford, missed out on a jackpot of £3,011,065 after losing his ticket. Using computer records, he was able to prove the winning ticket was his but Camelot refused to pay out — since the rules state that the winner must have their ticket to claim their fortune.

The decision sparked a national furore, with even the then Prime Minister Tony Blair championing Mr Tott's cause — but all in vain.

The prize money would have allowed the winner to buy 339 houses at the average Stevenage price of £190,000 or — should the urge take them — more than two million bottles of champagne.

It would also have made them a good deal richer than the commuter town's most glamorous son, F1 driver Lewis Hamilton (who is worth a reported £55 million), and almost three times wealthier than local Harry Potter star Rupert Grint (worth a relatively paltry £24 million).

In 2004, £7 million went unclaimed in Belfast, and in September 2007 a £6.9 million win wasn't claimed in Devon.

Until now the largest unclaimed sum was £9.4 million, on a ticket that was bought in Doncaster in July 2005.

Camelot's Simon Horne says, "We all want winners to get their money but there must be a deadline. Otherwise every prize would just go on indefinitely. But this way billions of pounds have gone to good causes over the years — from funding the Olympics through bodies like Sport England to local playgroups and Scout clubs."

Still, the psychological fallout of a near miss can be devastating.

After Mr. Tott was denied his millions he plunged into depression, separated from his partner and moved to America, where he joined an evangelical cult. He has since returned and, claiming to have found happiness, written a book about his ordeal.

Residents in Stevenage can readily imagine the pain of losing a winning ticket. Marion Johnson, 56, a human resources manager, says, "Can you imagine? It would be awful. It's money that could completely change your life. If that were me, I'd feel sick."

Of course, the treasure hunt would not be needed if Camelot revealed the precise place where the winning ticket was sold.

Purchasing records mean that they can easily identify the shop — but the company's license forbids it from making that information public in order to maximize the winner's chances of anonymity.

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This many unclaimed prizes leads me to believe that some of these individuals are using the multiple draw option and lose track of their tickets or checking it over time. This would be very likely if its not their personal numbers that they wouldn't instantly recognize.

This many unclaimed prizes leads me to believe that some of these individuals are using the multiple draw option and lose track of their tickets or checking it over time. This would be very likely if its not their personal numbers that they wouldn't instantly recognize.

It is VERY easy to lose track, especially if multiple games are played with multiple draw days......

Stories like this convince me many player don't believe they will ever win so they don't bother to check their tickets or treat them as if they have value until after they've been checked even though they dream of winning.

* you don't need more tickets, just the right ticket * * your best chance at winning a lottery jackpot is to buy a ticket * "I will magically reveal the winning numbers after the drawing"

The person may have had a heart attack when comparing their ticket to the winning numbers and croaked. The ticket may have fallen under the couch or chair and may still be sitting there....maybe they should check to see who died in the area where the ticket was sold around that time..lol...just a thought

hey ive been homeless, if someone no longer wants you in their house, say you can leave your stuff there till you find a place there, and when you go back to collect its on the road side. maybe it was the winning ticket. maybe it was in a stolen car that wwas torched, maybe the person died? \

there are a lot of reasons a ticket can go missing. its why our state has a player card that all tickets purchased are recorded on. IF THE TICKET IS LOST THEY HAVE YOUR CONTACT INFO . and they will forward the prize, usually a phone call the night of the draw for jackpots.

millions in bucks of small prizes, NEVER EVER get claimed in pb/mm and its just seem over seas with this game

this was one of them, a forgetten ticket, by some lazy moron no doubt.

at lest they help grow the jackpots and help whatever lotteries fund

its a real shame a player didn't get this thro

and i want it so unclaimed mega millions or powerball jackpots, get put back into Next full drawing jackpot

or give them a week to market it, aka next week jackpot will get a xxx million Boost,

or if wanted to be pure devil , make it rule, the money will be added into next jackpot to cross 300m

aka create a other monster with help of idiots losing a major jackpot, etc

just putting idea out there, i just want "jackpot pool" of unclaimed money to be put back in to future jackpot pools

people played so there could be a real human winning it,

not so some lottery winning there own lottery draw

sense we had a moron player suicide in a manner of speaking the money back to lottery

It is indeed regrettable that you will be so quick to assign with impunity,“lazy moron” status to the winner without knowledge of the facts to backup your allegation of laziness and imbecility, which is what “moron” means and connotes.

In the eyes of Camelot, the winner is a missing winner, but it is also possible that the winner's status could be, far much more severe than a mere missing winner, and (heaven forbid) could have the parallel status of a missing person or worst still permanently unavailable.

Death is the inevitable, unavoidable, unscheduled end of all things, across all of space. All 7 billions of us currently on earth, and the millions of other species, animals, plants, and the earth itself, and yes, taxes and corporations too, are all doomed to the same inevitable, ever un-welcomed, possibly futile end of death; sometimes without notice, without warnings, just like that.

Perhaps the winner's current status is that of one, who is no longer in a shared existence with those of us still alive.

It is indeed a privilege to be alive, and our experience of life yesterday and today, gives us the hope that the same experience will be allowed, repeated and fulfilled for us again and again, with many more tomorrows to come our ways. But in the end, Man Proposes and God Disposes.

Not too long ago on these posts, many of us shared in writings. But noticeably absent was Ridge, and one of the members wrote; and expressed the concern that, He hopes that Ridge was OK, as it was not his style to be so absent. Yes, this is the ideal human reaction that we entertain, when a person that is known to a group, has not been heard from in a while. Even Ridge's avowed enemies on the lottery post, set aside all quarrels until the self declared oracle of the Appalachians was verified still alive and well. I hope you get the point.

Once again, I did a quick online verification for the definition of the word moron and the value returned from the freedictionary.com is as follows:

“mo·ron

n.

1. A stupid person; a dolt.

2. Psychology A person of mild mental retardation having a mental age of from 7 to 12 years and generally having communication and social skills enabling some degree of academic or vocational education. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.”

I encourage you to retract your calling this winner “Moron”, seek his/her forgiveness even in the spirit and that will suffice, and in so doing, you also affirm the dignity, civility, respectability and the class act of this forum, to continue to be, and reign un-interrupted.